Greetings From the Bay of Islands, NZ

Morning Everyone,

    Sorry it has been so long in reaching you, but connections is the south Pacific are near impossible.  I am doing very well and still enjoying every moment.  The days fly by with one activity after another.  I have to plan time to relax and grab a nap.  I find myself falling asleep once I settle into a comfortable chair.  Enough about me.  Let me fill you in on what has been happening in my world at sea.

  Since my last contact I had just left Hawaii.  I traveled for four days heading south.  On that journey I crossed the equator and went through an initiation ceremony from being a pollywag to a shellback.  The ritual took place around the pool mid deck.  It felt as though the entire ship was watching.  Some guest, not me, were placed on a table and covered with all kinds of ground food from the kitchen.  Of course everyone screamed in approval.  The victim then went into the pool.  The crew did this for about 10 guests and a few new crew.  By the time they finished the pool looked like a soup.  The rest of us had to kiss the face of a large fish.  It was great fun.  We even had King Neptune in attendance, with the Captain and other senior officers.  There were mermaids, and a life guard just in case.  After all the fun was over, we received a certificate indicating our passage over the Equator.

  Our next stop was America Samoa in Pago Pago.  I escorted a tour here and visited the country side.  Did meet a number of natives and saw their homes.  The people here presented a show of dancers and explained their family structure.  The resorts are beautiful.  Sorry, I forgot we first went to Apia, Western Samoa I was very impressed with the resourcefulness of these folk.  while on the island I purchased a native garment, we would call it a skirt.  The native men live in these outfits.  I wore my brown luffa luffa for three nights to dinner.  At first heads turned, by the third evening going from island to island the guests got use to my attire.  As as a matter of fact many other men got into the luffa luffas as well.  Out third island of Fiji had many up for the attire.

  We went to bed on February 10 and woke up on February 12.  We crossed the international date line and lost a day.  It has taken time for me and others to get use to the loss of day.  The world still rotates and we move on one day at a time.

We just completed two days at sea and have arrived at the Bay of Islands, NZ.  We will be in New Zealand for three days.  From here we are off to Auckland and then Wellington.  From what I see so far this day the people are very warm.  The country is beautiful..This is the place Zane Grey made famous with his writings about fishing etc.  There are a number of boats in the harbor, that is private boats.  We are on the Northern Island.  The country consists of two major islands - North and South.

  On board ship there are all types of activities.  I find the lecture series the ship offers to be most informative.  There are political experts, former Secretary of State from Australia, he had another title but it is comparable to what I called him. James Brady the author of the "Flags of our Fathers" and others.  He seems to love himself.  There were many others as well.  There are at least two lectures a day, a movie, a meeting with the Captain etc.  Yesterday 85 guest had gone into rehearsal and put on a concert.  The show was spectacular.  The director did a great job with the troops.  Last night there was a talent show put on by the staff.  Enjoyable.

 I boarded the tender at 8:15 this morning to get ashore so I could reach you.  Hopefully with the future ports of call I will be able to reach you more often.  The really next big stop is Sydney.  i have requested to lead a tour to the Opera House to see Carmen.

I am going to try and send a few pictures with this blog.  Hopefully it will work.

Take care.

   Bill